The present invention relates to methods and apparatus for electrical treatment of body tissues and muscles and more particularly to percutaneous pain alleviation by application of electrical tubes to external areas of the human body experiencing pain.
Electrical pulse generators have long been known for use for various medical purposes. The use of such devices, however, has been limited due to the sometimes painful and noxious side effects produced by such devices. Such undesirable side effects have been variously attributed to excessive voltages, improper pulse frequencies and/or wave shapes and unduly lengthy periods of application of the electrical pulses to the body. The cumbersome and unwieldy bulk and weight of such known devices has further limited the use of such devices at fixed locations, to wit, at the physician's office, the home, etc.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,155,366 there is disclosed a method or percutaneous pain alleviation in which the amplitude and pulse repetition frequency of the electrical output pulses fed to electrodes for application to the pain site is selectively variable by the user. The method in said patent has created a demand for even better methods and apparatus centering around the positioning of the electrodes.